He is the record breaking racing legend with more Formula One World Championship victories to his name than any other driver.
Michael Schumacher is widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers ever and won seven championships, five of them consecutively.
After starting karting as a child, the 51-year-old worked his way up to Formula One, spending most of his career driving for Mercedes.
However, he did switch to Ferrari in 1996, who had last won the championship in 1979, and transformed them into one of the most successful teams in the sport.
Even after he retired in 2006, he couldn't get the sport out of his blood and returned to the track just four years later.
Two years later he announced his career as a racing driver really was over for good and Britain's Lewis Hamilton replaced him at Mercedes.
In an emotional speech announcing his decision, Schumacher said while he still felt "able to compete with the best drivers" he wasn't sure if he had the "motivation and energy which is necessary to go on".
Just over a year after he announced his retirement, on December 29, 2013, while skiing with his then 14-year-old son, Mick, Schumacher suffered a devastating accident.
The father and son was skiing down the Combe de Saulire above Meribel in the French Alps.
It was while they were crossing an unsecured off-piste area that Schumacher, an accomplished skiier, fell and hit his head on a rock.
His life was saved by his ski helmet and the racing legend was airlifted to hospital and underwent two operations to save him.
Schumacher was placed in a medically induced coma and his doctors said his condition was stable.
By June the following year, it was reported that Schumacher had regained consciousness and he was transferred to a hospital for rehab.
He was allowed home in September of that year, where his rehab has continued, but where updates about his condition have been few and far between.
His devoted wife, Corinna, and management team have always insisted his health is a private issue and have remained tight-lipped about what, if any, progress the racing legend has made since his injury.
In a rare update just before the sixth anniversary of Schumacher's devastating accident, Corrina said "big things start with small steps".
And today, a neurosurgeon has claimed Schumacher's condition has "deteriorated" since the accident just over six six years ago.
Nicola Acciari said: "We must imagine a person very different from the one we remember on the track, with a very altered and deteriorated organic, muscular and skeletal structure,
"All as a result of the brain trauma he suffered."
And despite Corinna's determination to keep her husband's condition behind closed doors, ghoulish photos of the star at home were sneaked out and touted for £1million.
No images of video of Schumacher has been seen since his accident.
But last year there were repports that the secretly taken pictures show Schumacher lying in bed at his home in Geneva, Switzerland.
They were then smuggled out of the home by an "unknown person".
Corinna has called on police to take action against the person who took the snaps,it was reported last month.
Solictors for the family insist the picture violates Schumacher's "personal range of life".
Meanwhile, his manager Sabine Kehm has stressed: "Michael's health is not a public issue, and therefore we will not comment on it."
